My next door neighbour's garden is disgusting

[Heatherland77]

I've lived in a new build semi for the last three years, in a really nice area and I'm lucky to have friendly neighbours. I've worked hard on my home and garden and I'm proud of how nice it looks.
However....my next door neighbour has completely trashed his garden and it is a total eyesore. The first year, he just let the turf grow out of control until it was two foot high grass and weeds. He talked big and said he'd soon be choosing trees and having raised beds made of old railway sleepers etc. Nothing happened. He had some nice garden furniture that he left outside uncovered and it started rotting.
In the second year, again there was big talk of digging up the turf. He put string lines in to mark out a raised bed. He then put thick tarpaulin sheeting all over the turf to 'kill off the grass' but the grass just grew through it and it was a jungle again. I started seeing mice scuttling into my garden.
In the third year, the tarpaulin didn't move. He bought a second shed and spend an entire week constructing this bloody shed using the loudest circular saw etc during the hottest week of the year! All neighbours were pissed off by this point as we were all outside entertaining etc. In the July of that year, there was more big talk of paving the entire back garden and he bought four stacks of patio slabs which have stayed on our shared front driveway for nine months!! They are an eyesore and the cardboard has rotted down on each pack. His front border was so overgrown I spotted a rat scurrying out. I spoke to him about this and told him I was going to prune his front border myself to stop the rat from nesting. He was fine with this.
I had decking built in my garden last year and I told my neighbour the handyman I hired could take a look at the patio paving job and give him an estimate. They chatted. Handyman came back and said there was no way he'd do the job because it would be a case of digging 2 foot of clay out and the job would kill him. Fair play!
When I've hired a skip to move soil out of my garden, I've always offered for my neighbour to use it for no cost but he never gets himself organised enough to dig up some soil, even one bucket full.
Two weeks before Easter, there was more big talk of digging up soil and clearing out the rotten garden furniture, which is now falling apart.
Nothing has happened!!!!
There are mice, at least one rat, broken furniture, mud everywhere etc.
This man hardly ever goes out. He seems to sleep or game all day on computer etc. He just seems to be all gas and no mileage!
I am trying not to let it get to me and am trying to accept nothing will ever get done. Instead I will start to install screening and trees to cover up this eyesore. I'm in a position where I can now buy a bigger house and may want to put my current house up for sale but worry that my neighbour's garden will negatively affect my asking price.
Anyone else been in this position? Do I have any rights other than politely asking him when he might move the patio slabs off the front driveway etc?

That's really sad to be honest. He's probably in need of help and support. Sadly it's not easy to get help the fact he says I'm going to do xyz means he's not happy with how it is . But mentally he cant move beyond the thinking of it . I don't know much about hoarding but I know ors a pretty complex mental health issue .

This is so respectful. Thank you. Had a quick chat with him tonight and he's intent on hiring a mini digger. Maybe this will make something that feels like an obligation to a potentially ADHD mind more fun. He loves a tool!!! Pray that this is a turning point!!!

If the bloke who did your decking said digging into the neighbours clay soil made him not want the job, that might be a common theme with paving companies.

Well, here we are on 9th December and LITERALLY NOTHING HAS CHANGED! It is a joke now.
My neighbour's garden has metre high weeds across the whole plot. The seed-heads of these weeds have blown into my garden and are taking root in my gravel. I am constantly pulling new weeds out.
His garden furniture has completely disintegrated and is about to collapse in a heap. I have seen mice running about underneath our boundary fence. My cat spends HOURS in there looking for them and comes back with ticks attached to his neck, which I have to keep pulling out.
The pallets of patio slabs which have sat on the driveway for OVER TWO YEARS NOW (!!!!!!!) finally started unravelling themselves. The cardboard separators disintegrated and pieces started blowing around all over my front garden. Long trails of plastic wrapping were blowing across from the pallets halfway down the street.
There is nothing wrong with this person's mental health, they are just bloody lazy!!!!! I am sick to death of living next door to this selfish, inconsiderate man now.

Nothing is rat proof.

You can't do much about someone else's house though, much as they can't do much about yours.

You can drive yourself crazy about something you have no control over though.

Focus on the stuff that you can do to your place to isolate it from his.

So far I've added a fence trellis topper and planted a tree that should start disguising his house. Also his windows haven't been cleaned in 4 years and are disgusting. Nothing I can do about it as you say but I'll just keep blocking him out.

Is there any community support group who may volunteer to help clear his garden. I'd give him a dare to move the patio slabs off the driveway if it's shared and tell him you will have them removed if he doesn't comply, someone will pick them up.

I actually think it's time to request help/advice from our local council. It's a visual eyesore, is causing environmental harm with ticks and mice and has the potential to adversely impact the value of surrounding homes. There are young children to the back of his garden now who don't need tick bites.

Rats live under decking (pest control expert told me this)

I've spoken to the housing association involved in this case and they are taking it forward with this neighbour. They aren't pleased either, especially when thousands of people would kill to have a garden but can't afford it.

If it's ha then let them deal with him directly, hopefully they will help clear the garden.

That family with young children will definitely be bothered by cat shit. Just sayin'. 🤷
I'm surrounded by unkempt gardens - cat feces, out of control trees and Brambles top the list of problems.

My cat uses a litter tray since 8 weeks old and refuses to go anywhere else 🤣

My DH has similar traits and he has adhd. Before we moved in together, his garden was knee high weeds (and probably still would be, if I hadn’t got involved). If he doesn’t need a space, he can’t see the point in fixing it. Even now, we have many started not finished projects which drive me crazy but I keep them more or less in check with putting plans in place and managing them, paying out and doing stuff myself. It’s exhausting, but it’s part of who he is and I love him dearly regardless.

Your neighbour doesn’t have any form of control measures, for want of a better term, so he sees no reason to fix anything. My DH saw his house as a roof over his head but not a home. He had plenty of money, but slept on a mattress on the floor and had no curtains for instance. I do think your neighbour sounds like an extreme version of my DH. I’d be willing to bet his house inside is untidy and full of “stuff”, but clean.

Only mentioning all this to try and help you find a way forward. I think you need to tap into what his “control measures” might be. Whether that’s a proper sit down conversation where you share concerns and ask if you can help/can he make a plan - which you would need to put a timing to, and review (almost like old fashioned smart targets), or whether it’s getting environmental health involved over rodents in the garden. Honestly, I don’t have huge confidence in either working but it’s worth a shot.

Re ticks btw - they are carried into gardens by animals, most likely cats and foxes. They need animals to survive, so although the long weeds provide a launching pad for them to brush against your cat, something else is facilitating their travel. Unless neighbour kids are in the garden walking amongst the weeds, or have cats carrying them about, they won’t get tick bites.

Final thing, having lived next door to a v responsible neighbour who had decking and consequently rats - if you call anyone out about rats, agree that the first thing they’ll do is look to your decking.

OK. Despite numerous cats running about the area, OP of course owns the cat that holds it in, OP definitely has no rats&mice in the garden and the roaming cat would never bring ticks if not for the neighbour.

Living closely alongside neighbours and their differing standards of what's acceptable can of course be unpleasant. Living next to someone's roaming cats can be as unpleasant (and I'd argue more so!) than looking at neighbour's weeds and unwashed windows.

I have all of the problems with neighbouring properties that you have OP (apart from ticks, as I don't keep pets) and the cat feces and bloodied remnants of birds make it even worse.
So I sort of understand but also you wouldn't be on my imaginary Christmas list of considerate neighbours.

This sounds like an idea for an 80s sitcom! I hear the canned laughter!
Seriously leave the poor chap alone. Not everyone is into gardening. The rats are under your decking, even if you've sealed it.

Why are people mentioning rats? It's little mice. Sorry but I disagree with leave the poor man alone. He bought a house with a garden which THOUSANDS of not hundreds of thousands of people would kill for but they can't afford it and he does this!!!!! Unfortunately for him, the housing association have taken the same opinion and because they own the greater share of his house, they are pissed off and will be visiting him shortly. He's had four years to sort this out. He is causing damage to an area of biodiversity (southern chalk and clay lands) and we are all fed up. I won't even start with the row with the neighbours opposite that he's started because he has to park hire cars on the kerb because of the bloody patio slab pallets taking up room. Neighbours opposite are fuming. Over two years of that hot mess. Enough is ENOUGH!

Yep, still no progress. Nothing has changed in the garden next door.